Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Social Media
  3. News

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Bluesky barrels toward 1 million new sign-ups in a day

Trevor Mogg
By

Social media app Bluesky has picked nearly a million new users just a day after exiting its invitation-only beta and opening to everyone.

In a post on its main rival — X (formerly Twitter) — Bluesky shared a chart showing a sudden boost in usage on the app, which can now be downloaded for free for iPhone and Android devices.

Recommended Videos

Bluesky added that since broadening the availability of the service yesterday by coming out of beta, the app has seen more than 850,000 new signups, expanding its community to more than 4 million accounts.

Related

After opening access yesterday, Bluesky has crossed 4M users! 🎉

• 850k+ new users have signed up
• Averaged 8.5 new accounts/second
• 2M posts were created in the last 24 hours

Sign up for Bluesky here, no invite code required: https://t.co/xjTBYE9oOJ pic.twitter.com/vDB4pdnERy

— bluesky (@bluesky) February 7, 2024

Bluesky launched its iPhone app in February 2023 before releasing an Android version two months later.

But the team behind it decided to take things steady, keen to grow the service slowly and in a controlled manner by bringing in new users via invitation codes from existing members or by sending codes to those who had signed up for a waitlist.

Last December, Bluesky took a significant step by making posts on the platform viewable to anyone via the web, regardless of whether they had an account.

This week, the team has gone all the way, finally making the app available to all.

Now, all eyes are on whether it can continue rapidly building its base by drawing in users from X, particularly those unhappy with Elon Musk’s stewardship of the platform since he acquired the company in 2022 for $44 billion.

Bluesky could also pull in some users from Threads, the X-like social media app launched by Meta to great fanfare in July last year. Threads saw 5 million signups in just the first four hours and has since grown to around 130 million monthly active users. That may be a lot, but the figure is still well short of X’s estimated 368 million monthly users.

A number of people also headed to wWhat is Mastodon? Here’s why everyone’s talking about this Twitter alternative, another X-like service, though some have found it difficult to set up and navigate compared to X’s relatively straightforward system.

Bluesky now finds itself in a critical phase as it waits to see just how much demand there is for another microblogging app in a space that sees one app continuing to dominate.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Twitter is down and not letting us tweet — it says users are over a daily limit [Update]
Error message on Twitter saying you are "over the daily limit for sending Tweets."

As of 6:10 p.m. ET, Twitter users appear to be able to tweet like normal once again. The original story is as follows:

It's nearly impossible to keep up with every new bug/feature/mishap at Twitter these days, but some are more noteworthy than others. Such is the case with today's bug (?), in which Twitter tells users that they are "over the daily limit for sending tweets."

Read more
Twitter will soon be a bit less irritating for many people
Twitter logo in white stacked on top of a blue stylized background with the Twitter logo repeating in shades of blue.

With or without Elon Musk at the helm, Twitter can’t seem to decide what it wants to do with its algorithmic timeline, currently branded as “for you,” which shows tweets it thinks you'll like, whether or not you follow the tweeter.

For years it’s been messing about not only with the algorithm but also with the extent to which it forces the timeline on users.

Read more
What is Mastodon? Here’s why everyone’s talking about this Twitter alternative
Series of four mobile screenshots showing Mastodon's sign-up process.

By now you've no doubt heard about Mastodon. It's a social media platform that's been bandied about as an alternative to Twitter, particularly among users who aren't comfortable with the direction Twitter is going in now that Elon Musk is at the helm.

In fact, since Musk first announced that he was planning on buying the popular microblogging platform, Mastodon has garnered quite a bit of attention and experienced significant growth. But though you've likely heard about Mastodon, you may not be familiar with how it works or haven't decided whether or not it would be a good fit for you if you ever choose to leave Twitter and need an alternative social media platform. Don't worry. We've got you covered. In this guide, we'll get you up to speed on everything you need to know about social media's buzziest new platform.
What is Mastodon?

Read more